If you miss out this weekend, you’ll have to wait another year… to experience, quite simply, the best Steampunk festival in the country, if not the world!

So, what is Steampunk? It is perhaps best understood as a forward-looking, optimistic and modernist outlook coupled with Victorian-era fashion and sensibilities. Much of its charm and growth has been attributed to its welcoming, family friendly nature, and its very diverse elements and sources of inspiration. The dress and mannerisms of a gentleman or lady, complete with pocket-watch, corset or vest, and top hat or parasol umbrella would be considered prototypically Steampunk, but so would a mad scientist, a Zeppelin pilot, a jungle-crawling gentleman-adventurer, Western fronteir bartender, or a clockwork tinkerer and inventor. (With all that said, though many will be in costume, do not feel that you have to be! And naturally if you wish to be, there will be many vendors prepared to help…)

What might make us the best? It’s not simply the fact that we are, arguably, the largest event of this kind – we are filling two hotels! Both the Radisson and the Embassy Suites (Piscataway) will be main hotels.

We have an unbelievable amount of entertainment, encompassing a diverse range and scope. For example, we have –

The Symposium Track – for the intellectuals among us
A DIY Maker Space – where you can get your hands dirty (including, but not limited to 20,000 Legos Under the Sea)
The Marvelous Midway
Milly Wonka’s Wild Absinthe Tasting
The Goblin Market & VIP Meet and Greet
Hope It Rains – Outdoor entertainment exclusively for damp weather
And our ever-expanding list of performers, contests and presenters!

We’ve got less than a week, folks! The Third Annual Steampunk World’s Fair is less than FIVE DAYS away… and we’re putting the finishing touches on our spectacular programming. Not one but TWO bands will be making their US debut at the Steampunk World’s Fair – Strange Artifact (Japan) and Victor Sierra (France) – we can proudly say that we have unique entertainment you won’t find anywhere else in the country

Speaking of unique entertainment… try your luck on the Marvelous Midway – play traditional carnival games in the midst of unicyclists, fire jugglers, singing clowns… and more! The Midway harkens back to the golden days of the traveling circus. Some of our favorite performers – Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band – will be hosting their record release on the Midway. More exclusive material that you won’t find anywhere else but World’s Fair.

If you’re looking for a darker kind of carnival – upgrade your ticket, and gain admittance to the Goblin Market and Carnival Obscura, where anything and everything is for sale. For a few of your secrets, you can literally “toy” with our living dolls. A memory or two might buy a spin on the Wheel of Misfortune. A plethora of vendors offer every imaginable service – peddling everything from dreams, to Colors, to the absolution of sins. Also housed inside the Carnival is the VIP Meet and Greet – where you can mingle with our Steampunk Celebrities.

Finally, be prepared to meet the Green Fairy! Well, lots of them, that is. Milly Wonka’s Wild Absinthe Tasting – which now includes two delicious meads, as well as traditional and white absinthe – features unbeatable entertainment, and a gaggle of lovely fairies for your viewing pleasure.